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Written question asked by Andrew Rosindell (Conservative) on Monday, 27 February 2023, in the House of Commons. It was due for an answer on Wednesday, 1 March 2023. It was answered by Andrew Griffith (Conservative) on Monday, 6 March 2023 on behalf of the Treasury.

Government Securities

Question

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, how many and what proportion of UK gilts are held by (a) foreign central banks and (b) banks located in the People's Republic of China as of 27 February 2023.

Answer

The gilt market is deep and liquid and is supported by a generally well-diversified investor base, including domestic and foreign investors.

The Office for National Statistics (ONS) publishes data on the broad breakdowns of the underlying owners of UK government debt as part of the UK Economic Accounts, published quarterly. The ONS, however, does not provide a domicile breakdown of where UK debt is held overseas, so it is not possible to observe the specific amount of gilt holdings by sub-groups of overseas investors.

The latest available ONS data can be found here:

https://www.ons.gov.uk/economy/nationalaccounts/uksectoraccounts/datasets/unitedkingdomeconomicaccountssectorgeneralgovernment.

More generally, gilts are largely held in nominee accounts and holdings of underlying beneficial owners are therefore not identifiable.

Secondary information

Type
Written question
Reference
153714
Session
2022-23
Subjects
Central banks China Foreign companies Government securities
Contains statistics
Yes
Link
View this Written question on www.parliament.uk